BOULDER — Zahkai Brown stood 9 feet and slightly downhill from joining his brother and former Colorado State teammate Zenon Brown on the all-time Colorado Golf Association Public Links Championship list.
Brown made the birdie putt on the par-4 18th hole to take the title by a stroke over CSU teammate Riley Arp. The winner shot a 2-under-par 68 on Sunday at Flatirons Golf Course to finish the three-round tournament at 10-under.
As the first brother combo on the CGA Publinks title list (Zenon won in 2005), the younger Brown said, “It’s nice. If he did it, I can do it.”
His brother recently turned pro after wrapping up his CSU career.
Foremost on Brown’s mind Sunday was beating Arp.
Playing in the final threesome and with their dads as caddies, the players’ green CSU bags stood next to each other on every hole. Much to the players’ mutual chagrin, they showed up wearing identical CSU team shirts.
“I didn’t want one of my teammates to beat me,” Brown said. “I thought there would be a playoff, but I took an aggressive putt.”
Brown has been on a tear, qualifying last week for next month’s U.S. Publinks Championship in Norman, Okla. He was named Mountain West Conference freshman of the year in May.
But Arp pulled ahead by two strokes with back-to-back birdies on No. 14 — after missing an eagle putt by inches — and No. 15.
“He told me on 16, ‘I’m going to press the rest of the way,’ ” said the winner’s father, Orin Brown.
It took Brown a while to recover from Arp’s eagle on the 572-yard No. 7, the longest hole on the course.
“When Riley eagled No. 7, it got in my head and I was frustrated for the next six holes,” said the eventual winner.
Brown led from a soggy first day to the contested final round on a rare dry weekend.
“It always seems on the pro tour that the first-round leader doesn’t win,” Brown said.
“I hate losing to a teammate, I hate losing to a sophomore,” said Arp, who will be a senior this fall.
Although they wore their college shirts, Brown represented Indian Tree Golf Course in Arvada and Arp represented Collindale in Fort Collins. Keenan Holt of Hillcrest Golf Course had the best round of the tournament Sunday with a 63.
